After the heaviest week of Fed talk and macro data releases in recent memory,
the calendar will see a very light week of rhetoric and economic releases.
Monday, will see the publication of the Conference Board's index of leading
economic indicators, Thursday the weekly jobless claims data and the week will
conclude with the publication of the September existing home sales.

Fed Talk

Ahead of the FOMC meeting on 29 October, the week will see a modest quantity
of Fed talk. On Monday, Atlanta Fed President Lockhart will speak on the economic
outlook and FRB Minneapolis President Stern will speak, topic TBA.

Corporate Earnings

The week will see a heavy slate of earnings announcements that will feature
a large quantity of releases from financial firms. Monday will see announcements
from American Express and Caterpillar. The following day will feature, United
Healthcare, US Bancorp and M&T Bancorp. After market releases on Tuesday
will see Yahoo, Black Rock, Apple and State Street. Heavyweights on Wednesday
announcing earnings will be Boeing, Wachovia, McDonalds and Merck. Thursday
will see Microsoft, Altria, UPS, Eli Lilly and Jet Blue all release earnings.
The week will conclude with AMBAC and MBIA providing information on their bottom
lines to the public.

Leading Economic Indicators (September) Monday 10:00 PM

The index of leading economic indicators should capture the recent turmoil
in financial markets and provide a fairly bleak reading of the prospects for
the US economy. Save, the increase in the money supply at the Fed every other
leading indicator should be emitting negative signals for the US economy. We
anticipate that the leading index will fall -0.4% for the final month of Q3'08.

Jobless Claims (Week Ending October 18) Thursday 08:30 AM

The impact of the twin hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast this year on the claims
series has begun to unwind and the adjustment within the initial claims looks
to be just about finished. We expect that claims will increase to 470 for the
week.

Existing Home Sales (September) Friday 08:30 AM

The market will observe some of the first hand data since the intensification
of the credit crunch begin just over one month ago. The existing sale of homes,
which has been in the process of stabilizing over the past few month's is poised
to reap the benefits of the strong increase in pending home sales in August.
Indeed our model confirms that data should confirm that. However, its is in
our judgment that the rapid deterioration of conditions in the credit markets
effectively shut down lending for part of the sampling period and this should
adversely impact purchasing activity in September. Thus, we anticipate that
jobless claim will decline to 4.70mln for the month of September.

Bridging academic rigor and communications, Joe Brusuelas
provides the Merk team with significant experience in advanced research and
analysis of macro-economic factors, as well as in identifying how economic
trends impact investors. As Chief Economist and Global Strategist, he is responsible
for heading Merk research and analysis and communicating the Merk Perspective
to the markets.

Mr. Brusuelas holds an M.A and a B.A. in Political Science
from San Diego State and is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern California,
Los Angeles.

Before joining Merk, Mr. Brusuelas was the chief US Economist
at IDEAglobal in New York. Before that he spent 8 years in academia as a researcher
and lecturer covering themes spanning macro- and microeconomics, money, banking
and financial markets. In addition, he has worked at Citibank/Salomon Smith
Barney, First Fidelity Bank and Great Western Investment Management.

Mr. Brusuelas lives in Connecticut with his wife and St.
Bernard.

Merk Investments LLC is the manager of Merk Mutual Funds,
including the Merk Asian Currency Fund and the Merk Hard Currency Fund. The
Merk Asian Currency Fund invests in a basket of Asian currencies. Asian currencies
the Fund may invest in include, but are not limited to, the currencies of China,
Hong Kong, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South
Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Funds may be appropriate for you if you are pursuing
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or are looking for a way to potentially mitigate downside risk in or profit
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a prospectus, please visit www.merkfund.com.

Investors should consider the investment objectives,
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This and other information is in the prospectus, a copy of which may be obtained
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calling 866-MERK FUND. Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest.

The Funds primarily invest in foreign currencies and
as such, changes in currency exchange rates will affect the value of what
the Funds own and the price of the Funds' shares. Investing in foreign instruments
bears a greater risk than investing in domestic instruments for reasons such
as volatility of currency exchange rates and, in some cases, limited geographic
focus, political and economic instability, and relatively illiquid markets.
The Funds are subject to interest rate risk which is the risk that debt securities
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This report was prepared by Merk Investments LLC, and
reflects the current opinion of the authors. It is based upon sources and
data believed to be accurate and reliable. Opinions and forward-looking statements
expressed are subject to change without notice. This information does not
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any products or services. Foreside Fund Services, LLC, distributor.